Go-to-market, growth planning and launch resources
A go-to-market plan connects who you sell to, the message, the channels and the budget into one sequence with owners and dates. Use the 90-Day Growth Playbook to find what is working, commit to it in the Startup Marketing Plan workbook, and run launches from the Launch Plan Checklist.
Covers: GTM strategy, marketing plans, 90-day growth programs, product launches, growth loops, channel mix.
Learn the method
- 90-Day Growth Playbook — Audit the funnel, run focused experiments and turn winners into SOPs.
- Product-Led Growth Playbook — Eight steps to product-led growth: find the activation moment, choose the free model, place the paywall and let usage decide who sales calls.
- Product Launch Playbook — Pre-launch positioning, launch week coordination and post-launch optimisation. B2C version
- Customer Segmentation Playbook — Segment by need and buying process, size and score the candidates, then choose one segment to win first. (from Strategy & Positioning)
- Demand Gen & Performance Marketing Playbook — A focused channel mix and CAC-driven experiments across two or three channels. (from Paid Media)
- Foundations Playbook — Positioning, ICP, a GTM plan and core analytics for early-stage teams. (from Strategy & Positioning) B2C version
- Community & Dark Social Playbook — Eight steps for marketing where analytics can't see: find where buyers already talk, make thinking easy to forward, and measure by asking. (from Social, Community & Creators)
- Earned Media Playbook — Eight steps for getting press without an agency: find a story only you can tell, pitch the right people, and make coverage work twice. (from PR, Partnerships & Events)
- Founder-Led LinkedIn Playbook — Eight steps for founders who are their startup's only voice: what to post before proof, a cadence that lasts, and when to hand it on. (from Social, Community & Creators)
- Partner Co-Marketing Playbook — Eight steps for co-marketing that pays both sides: choose partners by audience overlap, agree terms in writing and share leads with consent. (from PR, Partnerships & Events)
- Franchise Marketing Playbook — Recruit the right franchisees and help every location win local customers, within FTC and state rules. (from Industry Playbooks)
Run the numbers
- Bottom-Up Market Sizer — Size TAM, SAM and SOM from accounts you can count, with SOM set by capacity.
- Launch Readiness Planner — Score whether you are ready to set a launch date, then build the dated work-back plan.
- Marketing Decision Guides — Which channel first, which marketing hire, which tools now: a few questions each, then a clear answer and where to go next.
- Marketing Leadership Cost Comparator — In-house, fractional or agency, costed on your own numbers including ramp and your hours. (from Marketing Ops, AI & Team)
- Webinar Pipeline Planner — Work backwards from a pipeline target to the room a webinar actually needs. (from PR, Partnerships & Events)
Build it
- The Diagnose, Design, Execute Email Course — Ten short lessons over three weeks, from the one number that matters to a plan you can measure.
- The Campaign Brief — Decide the one number, the one audience and belief, and how you will judge the campaign - before any money is spent.
- The Startup Marketing Plan — A 90-day plan workbook: funnel and unit economics, positioning, channel scorecard, roadmap and budget.
- The Launch Plan Checklist — Set one date and 40 launch tasks schedule themselves, with a Go/No-Go gate.
- The Segment Scorecard — Score up to eight segments on six weighted criteria, with evidence and confidence, and commit to the first market to win. (from Strategy & Positioning)
- The Webinar Run-of-Show & Follow-Up Planner — Plan the session and the follow-up together: a dated countdown, a timed run-of-show, and three follow-up messages. (from PR, Partnerships & Events)
- The Board Marketing Slide Pack — Twelve board slides that lead with the answer: the number against plan, what it cost, what you learned and what you need. (from Analytics, Experiments & Budget)
Run it with your AI agent
- Campaign Orchestrator — Diagnose the problem and sequence the right skills through Diagnose, Design, Execute.
- Market Sizing — Sizes TAM, SAM and SOM bottom-up, with SOM set by capacity rather than a share of the market.
- ABM Program Design — Checks whether the team can run the account list, and whether the list hits the number.
- Marketing Loops — Model a compounding growth loop and find the stage throttling it.
- Product Launch — Tiers a launch, scores readiness on a twelve-item gate, and builds the dated work-back plan.
- Customer Interview Synthesis — Turns coded interview notes into ranked patterns and anecdotes, and says whether you can stop interviewing. (from Audience & Customer Research)
- Marketing Leadership Model — Prices in-house, fractional and agency with ramp, search time and your own hours, and says which shape fits. (from Marketing Ops, AI & Team)
- Marketing Maturity Assessment — Scores marketing as a system across six dimensions, and names the weak links to fix first for your stage. (from Marketing Ops, AI & Team)
- Lead Magnet & Free Tool Design — Scores lead-magnet and free-tool ideas on the job they do against build effort, and judges live ones on qualified leads. (from Website & Conversion)
- Partnerships & Co-Marketing — Score partners on overlap rather than fame, write the terms, judge it on pipeline. (from PR, Partnerships & Events)
- PR & Earned Media — Score the story before you pitch it, then aim it at twenty of the right people. (from PR, Partnerships & Events)
- Webinar & Event Programs — Sizes a webinar backwards from the pipeline it must create, and judges it on meetings and pipeline against cost. (from PR, Partnerships & Events)
Read the research
- Beyond the Buzzword: Why Omnichannel is the New Standard for Growth
- Demand Creation vs. Demand Capture: The Shift Smart B2B Marketers Are Making
- Free Trial, Freemium or Demo? — Choose your entry model by time to value and purchase complexity, with evidence from four IPO filings.
- Go-to-Market Strategy Examples: 10 B2B Startup Launches Analyzed
- How to Build a B2B Go-to-Market Strategy from Scratch: A Founder's Playbook
- International Expansion for SaaS Startups: How to Choose and Enter Your First Foreign Market — Five steps to a first foreign market: readiness, compare the rules, one country in phases, localize, local partners.
- Marketing Planning Cadence and OKRs: A Simple System for Startups — Five steps to a planning rhythm: four clocks, work back from the goal, shared OKRs, guardrails, weekly checks.
- Marketing Strategy for Startups: A Four-Layer Framework for Founders
- The Essential Marketing Strategy: Why Every New Business Needs a Roadmap for Growth
- Which marketing channels should a startup start with? — Start where your first segment already looks, pick channels whose cost fits your deal size, and test one or two against a pass mark you set in advance.
- How to Launch on Product Hunt Without Wasting the Day — Five steps to launch on Product Hunt: decide what it is for, launch something usable, prepare, never ask for upvotes, follow up.
- How to Market a Two-Sided Marketplace: Solving the Chicken-and-Egg Problem — Five steps to start a marketplace: the loop, the harder side first, one dense place, liquidity, both sides as marketers.
- Product Launch Checklist for Startups: 15 Things Teams Forget
- The AAJ Benchmark Library — Every benchmark AAJ publishes, with its primary source, sample size and the date it was last verified. (from Analytics, Experiments & Budget)
- How to Build a Marketing System That Runs Without You (from Marketing Ops, AI & Team)
- The B2B Buying Committee: How to Market to Everyone Who Signs Off — Five steps to market to a B2B buying group: map roles, buying jobs, one shared story, the champion's kit, wider groups. (from Sales & Pipeline)
- Cold Email for Founders: How to Write a Sequence That Gets Replies — Four steps to cold email that gets replies: a named list, one-pain emails, 4 to 6 touches, CAN-SPAM and inbox rules. (from Sales & Pipeline)
- Conferences and Trade Shows for Startups: Which Events Are Worth It? — Five steps to pick and work events: one job per event, who is in the room, cheapest way to show up, attract-contact-convert, follow up. (from PR, Partnerships & Events)
- How to run a webinar that creates pipeline, not just registrants — Most startup webinars fill a registration list and stop there. How to pick the job, the topic and the format, and why the follow-up is the real event. (from PR, Partnerships & Events)
- Integration Marketplaces: How to Market Your App Where Your Customers' Software Lives — Five steps to market an app on integration marketplaces: pick the platform, read the guide, sell in the listing, work the channel, manage dependence. (from PR, Partnerships & Events)
- The EdTech Marketing Calendar — When districts plan, budget and buy, season by season, with the main conferences. (from Industry Playbooks)
Work with AAJ
Other topics
- Strategy & Positioning
- Audience & Customer Research
- Pricing & Monetization
- Brand & Voice
- Analytics, Experiments & Budget
- Content, Copy & SEO
- AI Search & Agent Readiness
- Paid Media
- Social, Community & Creators
- PR, Partnerships & Events
- Website & Conversion
- Sales & Pipeline
- Retention, Expansion & Advocacy
- Marketing Ops, AI & Team
- Industry Playbooks